Board sports like surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding share similar control and ride dynamics and so require mastery of three fundamental kinds of balance. The first two kinds of balance, side-to-side balance and front-to-back balance are defined here relative to the riding device and direction of travel. Side-to-side balance refers to balance to the right or left side of the direction of travel, and may be referred to as “lean steering”. Front-to-back refers to balancing toward or away from the direction of travel. The third kind of basic balance, one foot-two foot balance relates to balancing on one foot or both feet, the transition between one foot and two feet, as well as maintaining balance when changing foot positions on the board.
With board sports a board or deck supports the rider and both steering and side to side balance are controlled by leaning the board right to steer right and left to steer left. A rider in motion falling off the board to the right leans the board to the right to steer the board right and back underneath the rider in order to regain balance. As well, turning requires riders to dynamically project their center of mass to the right or left in advance of lean steering the board. Learning board sport lean steering to maintain side-to side balance going straight or while turning is a significant learning challenge further complicated by the difficulty of mastering front-to-back balance and one foot-two foot balance.
The present invention is a riding device that facilitates learning the three kinds of balance required with board sports.